THE ONE GREAT FORCE: 

"-56A*£ the cause of 



GRAVITATION, PLANETARY MOTION, HEAT, LIGHT, 

ELECTRICITY, MAGNETISM, 
CHEMICAL AITmiT, AND OTHER NATURAL PHENOMENA. 



BY CEISFIELD JOHNSON. 



Proposition:— 77^ One Great Force of the Material Universe is the 
Self- Repulsion of Caloric, acting on the Inertia of Ordinary Matter. 






BUFFALO: 

PUBLISHED BY BREED & L E X T. 



1868. 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1868, by 

CRISFIELD JOHNSON, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Northern 

District of New York. 



Thomas, Howard & Johnson, 

Stereotyjiers, Printers and Binders. 

buffalo, n. t. 






PREFACE. 



This is a large subject and a small book; parts of the 
former must be insufficiently treated, and, brief as is 
the latter, yet its few pages may perchance contain 
many untenable statements, and some foolish ones. Its 
sole object, however, is to establish the proposition 
enunciated on the title page, and some mistakes in 
treating of the minor manifestations of force, (should 
such be found,) ought not to invalidate the theory, if 
there be still sufficient evidence of its truth — of which 
I have no shadow of doubt. 

Let no man be barred from investigation by the 
authority of Newton, for that authority is against the 
views of gravitation generally attributed to him, as 
appears by many of his writings, and especially by his 
third letter to Bentley, from which I have quoted in 
Chapter I. At least, read his views before you reject 
mine. 



IV PREFACE. 

Believers in an inherent principle of gravitation, act- 
ing inversely as the square of the distance, are also 
referred to the whole of Dr. Faraday's essay on the 
Conservation of Force, a few extracts from which appear 
in the body of this work. It has been republished in 
this country, together with other essays on kindred 
subjects, including two very important ones by Mr. 
Grove and Dr. Carpenter, in a work edited by E. S. 
Youmans, and entitled "The Conservation and Corre- 
lation of Forces." Dr. F. there shows at full length, 
and with the most convincing logic, the unsoundness 
of the ordinary (not the Newtonian) views of gravita- 
tion; and, when gravitation falls, all other kinds of 
(apparent) attraction fall with it. 

Particular attention is called to the explanation, on 

the following pages, of Capillary Attraction, of Tides, of 

Elasticity, and of Muscular Action. 

C. J. 

Willink, Erie Co., N. Y., Sept. 3, 1868. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 
Attraction Impossible, 9 

CHAPTER II. 
The True Power, 21 

CHAPTER III. 
Planetary Motion and Gravitation, . . . .28 

CHAPTER IY. 
Heat and Light, 35 

CHAPTER Y. 
Electricity and Magnetism, 43 

CHAPTER VI. 
Chemical Affinity and Cohesion, 58 



VI CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER VII. 
Other Inorganic Forces, 63 

CHAPTER VIII. 
Organic Forces, 67 

CHAPTER IX. 
Remarks, 81 

CHAPTER X. 
Definitions, 90 



THE ONE GREAT FORCE. 



THE ONE GREAT FORCE. 



OHAPTEE L 



ATTRACTION IMPOSSIBLE. 



For many years, the belief lias been steadily increas- 
ing among the leaders of the scientific world that Heat, 
Light, Electricity, Magnetism and Chemical Affinity are 
all manifestations of the same force, all convertible into 
each other, and that the sum of all these forces, like 
the sum of all the matter in the universe, is neither 
increased nor diminished by the workings of nature or 
the acts of man, and it is now the almost universal 
belief of men of science that Deity alone, by a miracu- 
lous interference with the course of nature, can change 
the total amount of force or matter. 

The doctrine of the identity of the different modes 
of force with each other has been named the "Correla- 
tion of Forces." For this grand theory we are indebted 
almost entirely to the genius of Grove, and his bril- 



10 THE ONE GREAT FORCE. 

liant essays furnish the most conclusive evidence of 
the truth of this hypothesis. The theory of the un- 
changeable amount of the sum total is termed the 
" Conservation of Force." This latter doctrine, espe- 
cially, is so firmly imbedded in the scientific mind of 
the age, that Mr. Herbert Spencer takes it as the very 
foundation of his new system of philosophy. Regard- 
ing the "Persistence of Force," as he terms it, he says: 
"The sole truth which transcends experience, by under- 
lying it, is thus the persistence of force. This, being 
the basis of experience, must be the basis of any scien- 
tific organization of experiences. To this an ultimate 
analysis brings us down, and on this a rational synthe- 
sis must be built up." 

Whether it be correct to assume this doctrine as an 
axiom or not, few will be able to reject it as a demon- 
strated fact when supported, as it now is, by the experi- 
ments of all modern philosophers. But which one of 
these correlated forces is the cause of the others, or 
whether the cause of all is to be sought elsewhere, 
scientific men do not pretend to say. For some un- 
known reason, too, they do not generally include gravi- 
tation in the list of correlated forces. Grove, with the 
occasional perversity of genius, gives the opinion that 
the only connection between gravitation and the other 



ATTE ACTION IMPOSSIBLE. 11 

forces is that the motion of a falling body, like any 
other motion, is converted into heat on being resisted, 
and adds: "With all -due deference, I cannot agree 
with those who seek a more mysterious connection." 

Yet this same attribute of matter, gravitation, is its 
most wonderful characteristic. How or why an unintel- 
ligent substance should go in the direction of another 
substance, or should have the power to make that 
other substance come toward it, is something entirely 
incomprehensible and inconceivable. Though Sir Isaac 
Newton is usually considered the author of the present 
system of gravitation, yet, in truth, he only discovered 
the identity of the force which in some way governs 
the planets, with that which causes an apple to fall to 
the earth, and did not pretend to attribute the cause 
of the phenomena he observed to attraction. On the 
contrary, in one of his letters he wrote thus: "That 
gravity should be innate, inherent and essential to mat- 
ter, so that one body should act upon another at a 
distance, through a vacuum, without the mediation of 
anything else, by and through which their force may 
be conveyed from one to another, is to me so great an 
absurdity that I believe no man wko~ has, in philosoph- 
ical matters, a competent faculty of thinking, can ever 
fall into it. Gravity must be caused by an agent, act- 



12 THE 0XE GREAT FORCE. 

ing constantly according to certain laws, but whether 
this agent be material or immaterial, I leave to the 
consideration of my reader." 

And again: "What I call attraction, may be jDer- 
formecl by impulse, or by some means unknown to 
me; I use the word here to signify, in general, any 
force by which bodies tend toward one another, what- 
ever may be the cause." Mr. Grove, in quoting this 
last remark, says: "How the phenomena are produced, 
to which the term attraction is applied, is still a mys- 
tery;" and so, indeed, it does seem a strange mystery 
that this inanimate earth should have the power to 
make a body entirely unconnected with it, come toward 
it, or that any inanimate body should, by its own force, 
move in one direction rather than another. Not only 
is such a power entirely inconceivable to the mind of 
man, but it is in direct contradiction to the doctrine of 
the conservation of force, as was clearly shown by the 
late Dr. Faraday, who, when living, stood first in the 
list of England's scientific men. 

In one of his essays, after giving his assent to the 
doctrine of the conservation of force, and stating the 
received opinion of gravitation as "a simple attractive 
force, exerted between any two, or all, the particles or 
masses of matter, at every sensible distance, with a force 



ATTE ACTION IMPOSSIBLE. 13 

varying inversely as the square of the distance," he 
says: "This idea of gravity appears to me to ignore 
entirely the principle of the conservation of force ; and, 
bv the terms of its definition, if taken in an absolute 
sense, ' varying inversely as the square of the distance,' 
to be in direct opposition to it, and it now becomes 
my duty to point out where this contradiction occurs, and 
to use it in illustration of the principles of conservation. 
Assume two particles of matter A and B, in free space, 
and a force in each, or both, by which they gravitate 
toward each other, the force being unalterable for an 
unchanging distance, but varying inversely as the square 
of the distance, when the latter varies. Then, at the 
distance of ten, the force may be estimated as one, 
whilst at the distance of one, that is, one-tenth of the 
former, the force will be one hundred; and, if we 
supposed an elastic spring to be introduced between 
the two, as a measure of the attractive force, the power 
compressing it will be a hundred times as much in the 
latter case as in the former. 

"But from whence can this enormous increase of power 
come? If we say that it is the character of this force, 
and content ourselves with that, as a sufficient answer, 
then, it appears to me, we admit a creation of power, 
and that to an enormous amount; yet by a change of 



14 THE OXE GREAT FORCE. 

condition so small and simple as to fail in leading the 
least instructed to think that it can be a sufficient 
cause. We should admit a result which would equal 
the highest act our minds can ajDpreciate of the working 
of infinite power upon matter; we should let loose the 
highest law in physical science which our faculties 
permit us to perceive, namely, the conservation of force. 
Suppose the two particles, 'A' and 'B,' removed 
back to the greater distance of ten; then the force of 
attraction would be only a hundredth part of what they 
previously possessed; this, according to the statement 
that the force varies inversely as the square of the 
distance, would double . the strangeness of the above 
results; it would be an annihilation of force — an effect 
equal in its infinity and its consequences with creation, 
and only within the power of Him who has created." 

Again: "The same line of thought grows up in the. 
mind, if we consider the mutual gravitating action of 
one particle and many. The particle 'A' will attract 
the particle 'B,' at the distance of a mile, with a cer- 
tain degree of force. It will attract a particle 'C,' at 
the same distance, with a power equal to that with 
which it attracts 'B.' If myriads of like particles be 
placed at the given distance of a mile, ' A ' will attract 
each with equal force, and, if other particles be accu- 



ATTRACTION IMPOSSIBLE. 15 

mulated around it, within and without the sphere of 
two miles in diameter, it will attract them all with a 
force varying inversely with the square of the distance. 
How are we to conceive of this force growing up in 
'A' to a million fold or more, and, if the surrounding 
particles be then removed, of its diminution in an equal 
degree. Or how are we to look upon the power raised 
up in all these other particles by the action of 'A' on 
them, or by their action on one another, without admit- 
ting, according to the limited definition of gravitation, 
the facile generation and annihilation of force?" All 
the foregoing remarks are applicable to attractions of 
every description; not only of gravitation, but also of 
cohesive chemical affinity and magnetism. 

After showing, in various ways, the absurdity of the 
ordinary definition of gravitation, and its inconsistency 
with this fundamental idea of the conservation of force. 
Dr. Faraday concludes that "the principle of the con- 
servation of force would lead us to assume, that when 
' A ' and ' B ' attract each other less because of increas- 
ing distance, then some other exertion of power, either 
within or without them, is proportionally growing up; 
and, again, that when this distance is diminished, 
as from ten to one, their power of attraction, now 
increased a hundred fold, has been produced out of 



16 THE ONE GREAT FORCE. 

some other form of power, which has been equivalently 
reduced." 

"I would much rather incline to the belief that 
bodies affecting each other by gravitation, act by lines 
of force of definite amount, or by an ether pervading 
all space, than admit that the conservation of force can 
be dispensed with." 

This last idea of Dr. R, though vaguely expressed, 
is undoubtedly the true basis, not only of gravitation, 
but of all the correlated forces of nature ; and the design 
of this little work is to show the nature of this " ether 
pervading all space," and how it affects matter so as to 
produce gravitation, heat, light, etc., etc. 

Most of the English scientific writers, in addition to 
the doctrines of the correlation and conservation of 
forces, have added another, in no wise connected with 
them, though generally held by the same men, and that 
is, that the different manifestations of force, heat, elec- 
tricity, etc., are, in reality, [only "modes of motion," 
analogous, in many respects, to sound, which analogy 
furnishes the advocates of this theory with many of 
their strongest arguments. This doctrine probably 
owes its origin, so far as heat is concerned, to Count 
Eumforcl, the distinguished American-born scientist of 



ATTRACTION IMPOSSIBLE. 17 

the last century, and has been adopted by a large 
number of the scientific men of the present day, 
although, as will be shown, it is in direct contraven- 
tion of the established ideas on the conservation of 
force. 

Prof. Tyndall and Mr. Grove are two of the most 
eminent of the writers who have advocated this theory, 
but there is a decided difference in their ideas as to 
how the different kinds of motion are propagated; the 
first named gentleman believing that they are transmit- 
ted in waves through an impalpable ether which per- 
vades all bodies and fills the space between, while the 
latter claims that the agents, commonly called impon- 
derables, are molecular affections of ordinary matter, 
and that the interstellar medium, which all admit must 
exist, though extremely attenuated, has all the attri- 
butes of other matter, " especially weight." But weight, 
itself, is only a tendency to move in a certain direction, 
and to leave it out of the number of correlated and 
conserved forces, is actually to destroy both conserva- 
tion and correlation. None of the writers on these 
subjects, undertake to say where this same motion 
comes from, and Mr. Grove insists that there is proba- 
bly no such thing as finding the ultimate cause of 
any thing. 



18 THE ONE GREAT FORCE. 

But motion is only a transient attribute of matter. 
Even if we admit, as Mr. Gr. claims, that matter is 
always in motion, to a greater or less extent, yet there 
is certainly a change in the amount manifested by the 
same article at different times. Now, motion, not being 
a permanent attribute of ordinary matter, but being 
superimposed on matter in different degrees, cannot be 
the end of all research into the subject of force. We 
must look to some permanent attribute or attributes of 
matter for all ultimate causes, under Providence. Prof. 
Tynclall seems desirous of thus founding the origin of 
physical phenomena in some permanent attribute of 
matter, and undertakes to account for the light and 
heat of the sun by supposing that numerous aerolites, 
revolving around that luminary, are continually falling 
ujDon its surface with tremendous velocity, and that 
this motion is transferred to an all embracing ether in 
waves; which waves, when they reach the nerves of 
feeling and sight, give the impression of heat and light. 

But what makes these aerolites fall to the sun? 
Attraction; so that the heat of the sun, and all its 
thousand manifold effects upon the earth, according to 
Prof. TVs theory, are ultimately traceable to attraction; 
to the power of inanimate matter to make other mat- 
ter unconnected with it come towards it. So, too, the 



ATTRACTION IMPOSSIBLE. 19 

learned Professor accounts for the heat and light of a 
candle, by supposing that the atoms of oxygen in the 
air, are attracted with enormous force toward the atoms 
of carbon in the melted wax or tallow, and that the 
clashing together of these atoms causes a vibration in 
the ether, which has been mentioned above, thus pro- 
ducing the phenomena of heat and light, and, as heat 
and light are universally admitted to be convertible 
into electricity, magnetism, etc., it necessarily follows 
that all forms of force result from attraction. And 
yet, strangely enough, the same writer is a firm adher- 
ent of the doctrine oi the "Conservation of Force," 
which the theory of attraction directly contradicts. 

The existence of attraction, as a universal attribute 
of matter, is inconsistent with the known workings of 
the universe. It acts inversely as the square of the 
distance; the nearer the stronger. Now, if two parti- 
cles or two worlds attract each other at all, that attrac- 
tion must go on increasing until they come in contact. 
Then no other substance can attract either of them as 
strongly as they attract each other unless it is equally 
near; that is, unless it is in contact with them, and 
then, of course, it cannot attract them apart, but only 
adds its power of attraction to that of the mass. So 
that the inevitable result of installing the single force 



20 THE ONE GREAT FORCE. 

of attraction in nature, would be that, instead of worlds 
circling around worlds throughout all space, there would 
be a constant aggregation of all the matter in the uni- 
verse. Toward the largest body, wherever that might 
be, atoms, planets, suns, would be hurled with ever in- 
creasing speed, constantly adding to the attraction of 
the mass, and drawing towards it all matter from all 
the ends of creation. Even if, as Tyndall and others 
claim, the motion of these falling bodies should be 
transferred as a quivering motion to the mass, and 
that motion should be heat, yet there could be no con- 
ductor to carry it off, for the interstellar medium would 
itself be attracted, and the whole would necessarily be 
converted into one quivering molten mass. 

Attraction, then, cannot be the great force of nature, 
because, 

First. It is inconceivable that an unintelligent body 
should have the power to make another body come 
towards it, or should be able of itself to go in one 
direction rather than another. 

Second. It is in direct opposition to the established 
doctrine of the conservation of force. 

Third. It is inconsistent with the known workings 
of the universe. 



CHAPTEE II. 



THE TRUE POWER. 



But, while attraction by inanimate matter is incon- 
ceivable, nay, impossible, the action of a self-repellent 
substance is plain and simple. If a fluid is self-repel- 
lent, but not reducible to ultimate atoms, the inner 
parts, as it expands, continue to act on the outer, 
driving them away from the center with a force that 
always remains the same as to the whole, though the 
amount exerted at any particular point, constantly 
decreases as it expands, because it acts on a larger 
surface. On striking against ordinary, inert matter, it 
would either carry the latter with it or else be turned 
in its course, and move straight on in the new direc- 
tion until again interrupted. 

Self-repulsion is the only source of motion of which 
we can conceive as an attribute of unintelligent matter, 
and it is also the only one which is in harmony with 
the doctrine of the conservation of force. Self-repul- 
sion, radiating from the center outward, is in strict 



22 THE ONE GREAT FORCE. 

accordance with the analogies of nature. The apparent 
examples of attraction, such as magnetism, gravitation, 
etc., have alwa}^s had an appearance of mystery to the 
human mind, and no one has been able to say, posi- 
tively, whether they proceed from an interior or an 
exterior force, but, in all cases of motion which we 
ourselves cause, and which, therefore, we have a better 
opportunity to investigate, we find it invariably radia- 
ting in every direction from its point of origin. Strike 
an anvil with a hammer and the sound radiates in 
every direction. Ignite a match and the heat and light 
radiate in every direction. Generate electricity and it 
follows the same law, if equally good conductors be 
furnished in every direction. Yet, if all matter were 
self-repellent, it is plain that all would fly in every 
direction, producing universal chaos. This result does 
not take place, consequently there must be, aside from 
ordinary matter, some self-repellent fluid, producing the 
motion which exists throughout the universe. 

As the name caloric is tolerably well known through- 
out the world, it may as well be continued as the name 
of an eternal, self-repellent fluid, which, by its different 
manifestations produces the phenomena not only of 
heat, light, electricity, magnetism and chemical affinity, 
but also of gravitation, planetary motion, and many 



THE TEUE POWER. 23 

otlier forces. As to heat and light, the fluid may have 
different attributes producing these effects, though it is 
more probable that the difference in sensation arises 
from the nature of the senses themselves ; the rapid mo- 
tion of the fluid producing the effects we call heat and 
light. But its indispensable attribute is self-repulsion. 

As I have before remarked, the general tendency of 
the same writers, who have so ably advocated the doc- 
trines of the correlation and conservation of force, is to 
dispense with caloric as a hypothetical fluid, leaving us 
without any cause for the phenomena of nature, except 
the impossible and insufficient one of attraction. Some 
of the arguments adduced to prove its non-existence 
will be noticed hereafter, but at present we will only 
say, that, without its self-repellent force, we cannot 
account for even one of the phenomena of nature, 

"Whatever may be the case with ordinary matter, it is 
certain that caloric cannot be resolved into ultimate 
atoms. An indivisible atom, with definite length, 
breadth and thickness, could not be self-repellent as to 
its own substance, for then it could be again divided ; 
and it could not repel other atoms to a sensible dis- 
tance, because as soon as it ceased to be in contact 
with them, even by the millionth part of a hairs- 
breadth, it could no longer operate on them without an 



24 THE OXE GREAT FORCE. 

expansion oi its own substance, which would destroy its 
definite length, breadth and thickness. It must, then, 
be infinitely divisible and self-repellent. 

[On the other hand, it is very probable, though 
scarcely susceptible of proof, that all ordinary, inert 
matter is reducible to ultimate atoms, and that these 
atoms are cubical. If we fuse any substance thoroughly 
by means of heat, and then suddenly remove the heat, 
the substance crystalizes; that is, it is arranged in rec- 
tilinear forms, and the presumption is strong that these 
are the original forms of its ultimate particles. This, 
however, is decidedly speculative.] 

Self-repulsion, as an attribute of all matter, would 
produce unbounded confusion. There must be a conser-' 
vative, controlling principle, and this principle is found 
in inertia, which is an attribute of all ordinary matter, 
in fact of everything except caloric. With this princi- 
ple, the ordinary ideas of gravitation are totally incon- 
sistent, although, most works on natural philosophy 
attribute both gravitation and inertia to the same 
matter. But inertia is the quality of remaining in just 
the condition in which anything is placed, while 
gravitation is a tendency to move in a certain direction, 
and the absurdity of attributing both qualities to the 
same substance is self-evident. 



THE TRUE POWER. 25 

Says the same distinguished authority heretofore 
quoted, (Dr. Faraday,) " There is one wonderful qual- 
ity of matter, perhaps its only true indication, namely, 
inertia; but in relation to the ordinary definition of 
gravity, it only adds to the difficulty. For if we con- 
sider .two particles of matter a certain distance apart, 
attracting each other under the power of gravity and 
free to approach, they will approach ; and when at half 
the distance, each will have stored up in it, because of 
its inertia, a certain amount of mechanical force. This 
must be due to the force exerted, and, if the conserva- 
tion principle be true, must have consumed an equiv- 
alent proportion of the cause of attraction, and yet, 
according to the definition of gravity, the attractive 
force is not diminished thereby, but is increased four- 
fold, the force growing up within itself the more rapidly 
the more it is occupied in producing other force. On 
the other hand, if mechanical force from without be 
used to separate the particles to twice their distance, 
this force is not stored up in momentum by inertia, 
but disappears, and three-fourths of the attractive force 
at the first distance disappears with it. How can this 
be? We know not the physical condition or action 
from which inertia results, but inertia is always a pure 

case of the conservation of force. It has a strict rela- 
3 



26 THE OXE GREAT FORCE. 

tion to gravity, as appears by the proportionate amount 
of the force which gravity can communicate to the 
inert body, but it appears to have the same strict 
relation to other forces acting at a distance, as those of 
magnetism, or electricity, when they are applied by the 
tangential balance as to act independently of the grav- 
itating force. It has the like strict relation to forces 
communicated by impact, pull, or in any other way. It 
enables a body to take up and conserve a given 
amount of force until that force is transferred to other 
bodies, or changed into an equivalent of some other 
form ; that is all we perceive in it : and we cannot rind 
a more striking instance, amongst natural or possible 
phenomena, of the necessity of the conservation of 
force as a law of nature, or one more in contrast with 
the assumed variable condition of the gravitating force 
supposed to reside in the particles of matter." 

Only one expression in the above extract needs 
remark. The "physical condition or action from which 
inertia results" is simply the absence of force. It is a 
purely negative quality, and, while unlimited self-repul- 
sion would produce only chaotic motion, universal 
inertia would involve all nature in the quietude of 
death. But the action of a self-repellent fluid upon 
inert matter would produce confined, modified, regulated 



THE TKUE POWER. 27 

motion, such as we see throughout the universe, and 
would, be in strict analogy with that dualism which is 
the most apparent characteristic of nature. 

It is evident that, if a self-repellent substance were 
exerting its force from every side upon a body of inert 
matter, and could not penetrate the latter, it would 
have a tendency to hold the particles of the body to- 
gether. If the caloric penetrated the body, but, instead 
of returning from it, carried it along in its own course, 
then close to either side of that body there would be 
force coming from the outside, with nothing, or with a 
less force, to oppose it, the force from the side of the 
body being cut off by it; and therefore small bodies 
would be driven toward the larger, giving the appear- 
ance of attraction, though there would be no more 
attraction than when water ascends toward the mouth 
through a tube from which the air has been removed 
by suction. It is the pressure from the other side that 
does the work in every case. 

I believe, then, and intend in the following chapters 
to prove that, 

The One Great Force of the Material Uni- 
verse, is the Self-Kepulsion of Caloric, acting- 
on the Inertia of Ordinary Matter. 



CHAPTEE III. 

PLANETARY MOTION AND GRAVITATION. 

The velocity of Mercury is about 110,000 miles an 
hour; that of Venus about 81,000; of the Earth, 
75,000; of Mars, 50,000; of Jupiter, 30,000; of Saturn, 
25,000; of Herschell, 15,000. This steady decrease of 
velocity, shows plainly that the planets have been 
thrown off from the sun, one after the other, the outer- 
most first, and that their original immense velocity, 
probably derived immediately from explosion, has been 
decreased by outside pressure. What is the force which, 
as fast as the planets have been thrown off from the 
sun, has stayed their outward course and made them 
circle around the parent luminary? Not attraction, for 
that is impossible, and, even if it were possible, attrac- 
tion in vacuo would create no friction, and therefore 
would not retard their velocity. 

Caloric in enormous quantities exists throughout all 
space; its self-repulsion drives it in every direction, 
and, on every body existing in open space, a tremen- 



PLANETARY MOTION AND GRAVITATION. 29 

clous pressure is exerted on every side by this self-re- 
pellent element. Our senses are attuned to the amount 
of caloric in circulation, and a slight change in that 
amount gives the idea of intense cold or heat, but 
above and below the ordinary range of our senses are 
thousands and thousands of degrees, extending from 
pure fire to the entire absence of heat. 

The amount of force is eternal, but, of course, when 
caloric radiates from any point, the amount exercised 
on any given body will be inversely as the square of 
the distance of that body, because the total force must 
be divided by the area of the surface of a sphere, the 
center of which is at the radiating point, and the areas 
of the surfaces of spheres are as the squares of their 
radii. When a body receives into its interior more of 
this fluid than it gives out, then on every side of it 
will be a space in which other bodies will be driven, 
not attracted, towards its center, because the first 
named body cuts off the force coming from one side, 
and leaves the force on the other side free to act. 
This inward driving force is gravitation, and is the 
stronger the nearer we approach the absorbing body. 

The subtle, self-repellent fluid forces its way through 
the crust of the earth into its interior, creating millions 
of tiny apertures, which close behind it, preventing, to 



30 THE OXE GREAT FORCE. 

a great extent, its egress ; the next wave on the outside 
drives in more caloric, and thus on, always increasing 
the size of the earth by its action on the inside, and 
driving bodies toward it by its action on the outside. 

The sun is acted on in the same way, and, from all 
parts of surrounding space, streams of caloric are rush- 
ing toward the great luminary, not because they are 
directly attracted, but because there they can most easily 
escape the surrounding pressure. 

If we imagine a cave, filled with furious winds, in 
the center of which is an immense ball, with an elastic 
crust, perforated by innumerable valve-like apertures 
through which the air can force its way to the interior, 
but can not, at least in as large quantities, escape, we 
can see at once that the air would tend toward the 
ball from every direction, nor need we suppose any 
special attractive force in the ball itself. 

Quiescent air would only fill the ball till it was as 
dense as on the outside, but wind, arising from an 
independent force, would, by the action of its waves, 
continually drive the air through the valves, thus con- 
stantly increasing the tension of the imprisoned part, 
and the self-repulsion of caloric is also an independent 
force, which produces like results on all the heavenly 
bodies. 



PLANETARY MOTION AND GRAVITATION. 31 

Newton demonstrated that the joint action of a con- 
tinuous rectilinear impulse, and of a central force which 
decreased inversely as the square of the distance, would 
produce elliptical motion, similar to the actual orbits of 
the planets, and as attraction, if it existed at all, would 
decrease inversely as the square of the distance, Newton's 
demonstrations have been considered as proving the fact 
of attraction, notwithstanding his own express rejection 
of it. But gravitation, arising from the absorption of ca- 
loric into any body, would also drive other bodies inward 
with a force inversely as the square of the distance. 

Acting, as caloric does, in free space, the pressure is 
the same everywhere, and the tendency toward the val- 
vular pores of the sun is the same at the distance of 
fifty million of miles as at one million. But, at each 
of these distances, the total amount is distributed over 
a hollow sphere, the surface of which is in proportion 
to the square of its radius, and therefore the force 
exercised at any particular point is inversely as the 
square of its distance. 

This is the explanation of gravitation in harmony 
with the conservation of force; this dispenses with the 
attraction in vacuo, which Newton repudiated ; this is 
the precise action of "an ether pervading all space," 
which Faraday sought. 



32 THE ONE GREAT FORCE. 

When the amount of this self- repellent fluid, enclosed 
in the sun or earth, becomes too great for the crust to 
contain it, it causes an explosion, either great or small. 
The small explosions are represented on earth by vol- 
canic eruptions and earthquakes; the great ones of the 
sun fling off a portion either of its crust or of its inte- 
rior, more probably the latter, which becomes a planet. 
Explosion, alone, would send it out in a direct line 
from the center; the rotary motion of the sun would 
throw it forward at a tangent to the surface; the com- 
position of these two forces must give it an interme- 
diate direction, but the moment it leaves the sun it 
is subjected to the action of the streams of caloric 
rushing toward that body from every direction, pro- 
ducing motion around it in elliptical curves, precisely 
as Newton demonstrated would result from a centrifugal 
impulse in a straight line, and a centripetal one which 
should decrease inversely as the square of the distance. 

Meanwhile the continual pressure, which drives it 
from a straight line into an ellipse, constantly retards 
its velocity, which decreases all the way from more 
than 110,000 miles per hour to less than 15,000. After 
ages have passed away, another planet is flung off, 
and another, and another, each circling in gradually 
increasing ellipses around the parent orb. Each is 



PLANETARY MOTION AND GRAVITATION. 33 

subject to the same pressure of caloric, which tends 
toward the center of the planet, forces its way through 
the valve-like pores of the crust, increases the size, and 
finally, by a grand explosion, flings off a moon, which, 
being operated on by the same forces, moves in an 
ellipse around the planet, as the latter does around the 
sun. 

In strict accordance with these views we see the 
planets steadily, though not regularly, increasing in 
size from mercury outward, and, though all are not 
attended by moons, yet, in the case of those that are, 
the number of satellites increases in the same direction. 

Contrary to appearances, there is more caloric going 
toward the sun than coming from it, more coming 
toward the earth than goes from it, and more coming 
from the side opposite the sun than from the sun itself. 
Nevertheless, the greater directness of the concentrated 
rays of the sun produces more heat and light than the 
oblique rays from the outside, the same as the more 
direct rays of summer have greater effect on both ani- 
mal and vegetable life than those of winter, though in 
the latter case, the earth is far nearer to the fountain 
of heat and light, than in the former. 

A very strong confirmation of these views is found 
in the phenomena of capillary attraction, a direct 



S-i THE ONE GREAT FORCE. 

reversal of the laws of gravitation, by which liquids in 
extremely small tubes rise instead of falling. An 
immaterial attraction by the earth, if it existed, could 
be as easily exerted in one kind of tube as another, 
and, were gravitation the result of a simple attraction, 
there could be no such thing as capillary attraction. 
But, while streams of caloric are rushing inward, suffi- 
cient to cause gravitation, a lesser number are pouring 
outward. The light we see coming; from our sister 
planets, whether caused by reflection or emission, is 
sufficient evidence on this point. The first named rays, 
coming from all parts of the celestial sphere, concen- 
trate in the earth ; the others act close to their point of 
emission, and consequently go directly upward. An 
exceedingly small tube cuts off the concentrating rays 
from above, and the direct rays from below enter the 
bottom of the tube and carry the liquid upward. 

The fact that when a capillary tube is composed of 
a bad conductor of caloric, like glass, it need not be 
so small as when composed of a good conductor like 
iron, strengthens this theory and adds another to the 
numerous proofs that gravitation, capillary attraction, 
and all the other forces of Nature, are the result of 
the self-repulsion of caloric. 



CHAPTEE IT. 



HEAT AND LIGHT. 



The correlation of these forces is more evident than 
that of any other two. At the point where either 
originates, that is, where combustion takes place, both 
can always be discovered to some extent; the chief 
difference being that, from the same amount of com- 
bustion, light can be perceived at a much greater 
distance than heat, and that, in passing through most 
solid substances, light disappears, while heat continues. 
The common origin of the two has been demonstrated 
by numerous experiments, and, if the doctrine of the 
correlation and conservation of forces be correct, that 
origin can only be caloric, a self-repellent fluid, escaping 
in every direction from the burning substance, produc- 
ing the sensation of heat on the nerves of feeling, 
and that of light on the organs of sight. As the eye 
is evidently a far more delicate structure than any 
other part of the human system, it can easily be 
understood that only a slight amount of caloric would 



36 THE OXE GREAT FORCE. 

be necessary to produce the sensation called sight, com- 
pared with what would be required to stir the grosser 
nerves of feeling. Thus the beacon, w r hose caloric is 
so far dissipated that its effect in exciting appreciable 
warmth is lost at the distance of a few rods, has vet 
sufficient strength to set in motion the delicate pulsa- 
tions of the optic nerve, miles and miles from the point 
of combustion. 

This would be the natural result of the susceptibility 
of our visual apparatus, whether the phenomena of heat 
and light w r ere caused by the self-repulsion of caloric 
or by the communication of motion to the particles of 
gross matter. But there is another fact, connected with 
these tw^o forces, which is incompatible with any other 
theory than that of an actual fluid, emitted from the 
luminous substance. When an opaque body intervenes 
between the point of combustion and the eye, the 
sensation of heat is still excited, though that of light 
is not. Now, if heat and light were only motions of 
gross matter affecting the different senses, the same 
result would follow^, as in the case of the distant beacon, 
and the most delicate sense would be the most easily 
affected. When the waves of sound are obstructed by 
an obstacle, the person with the finest sense of hearing 
will most easily catch the murmur; on the contrary, 



HEAT AND LIGHT. 37 

when the waves of light and heat are obstructed by an 
opaque substance, it is the coarser nerves of feeling 
that are affected by the amount of force which strug- 
gles through the obstacle. 

The only way we can account for these contrary 
results is to suppose that there is an actual substance, 
caloric, liberated from all combustibles, which, in its 
natural condition, affects the nerves both of sight and 
feeling, and which instantly, on its liberation, is driven 
with tremendous rapidity in every direction by its own 
self-repellent force. Through glass and other transpar- 
ent substances it passes in small quantities, (which 
accounts for their being such poor conductors of heat,) 
but it passes pure, uncontaminated by other matter, and 
therefore readily affects the infinitesimal nerves of the 
eye. Transparent substances, in order to transmit, 
unimpaired, the images of different objects from one 
side to the other, must be perforated by innumerable 
tiny apertures, perfectly straight, and so close together 
that the caloric apparently passes in a continuous 
stream, though, in fact, between all these millions of 
passages, there is a solid substance which we can feel 
and weigh. In the case of fluids and gases, it is 
probable that the caloric has force enough to drive the 
particles slightly aside, thus making for itself a straight 



38 THE ONE GREAT FORCE. 

road to tlie eye. But, in the case of an opaque sub- 
stance, although a much larger quantity of caloric may 
gain the further side, yet it contracts a taint, it carries 
with it accompanying particles of the gross matter 
through which it has made its way, causing it to be 
too coarse to affect the sense of sight, though it readily 
makes itself felt by the less delicate nerves of feeling, 
and, by its self-repulsive power, lifts the mobile column 
of the thermometer. 

Thus, when wood burns in a stove, caloric escapes 
from it, which is then capable of affecting the senses 
as heat and light. As it passes through the iron it 
carries with it an infinitesimal part of the latter, which 
prevents its affecting the eyes as light. It may seem 
at first incredible that fire should for years pass 
through a piece of iron, all the while carrying a por- 
tion with it, without utterly destroying the metal. In 
time its structure is destroyed, or "burnt out." but we 
have an example in the circulation of odors, how in- 
finitesimal parts of a body may be carried away for a 
long time, apparently without injuring its structure or 
diminishing its size. A piece of India-rubber, for in- 
stance, will affect the sense of smell for years, and yet 
suffer no sensible diminution, though we know that, all 
the while, infinitely small particles are being carried 



HEAT AND LIGHT. 39 

away by the surrounding air; because we know that 
the sense of smell is only affected by actual contact 
with the things smellecl. So, too, a solution of a grain 
of certain coloring matter may be diluted and sub- 
diluted, until as much as will hold the two-billionth 
part of a igrain in solution may be examined by a 
microscope, and still the color can be discovered. In 
support of the ideas here advanced, it will be observed 
that heat, in passing through metals, actually carries 
something with it which affects the human system, 
giving headaches, etc., although the same amount of 
heat, passed through a transparent medium, is perfectly 
harmless. 

In the case of a translucent substance like horn, the 
caloric evidently passes through pure, but the channels 
through which it makes its way not being straight, as 
in glass, the images formed on either side are broken 
up in the passage. Still, when the caloric has strug- 
gled through these tortuous channels, it is uncontam- 
inated by any foreign substance, and is therefore capa- 
ble of domg- service as light, and forming new images 
and transmitting them to the eye. 

VTe must now refer again to Count Eumford's doc- 
trine, that heat is merely a mode of motion in ordinary 
matter. Probably a majority of the scientists now 



40 THE OXE GREAT FORCE. 

living have adopted this idea, and, since the doctrine 
of the correlation of forces has been established, the 
belief has necessarily followed that all the impondera- 
ble agents are only modes of motion, either in ordinary 
matter or a certain ether, which really possesses all the 
attributes of caloric, except the indispensable one of 
self-repulsion. Various experiments are cited by the ad- 
vocates of this theory. The one on which Count Kum- 
ford chiefly relied for the vindication of his doctrine, 
was the heating of a large mass of gun metal by the 
friction of a boring machine, which only scraped off a 
few chips. "Can it be possible," asked Eumford, "that 
so much heat can be pressed out of so small an amount 
of metal?" But the jar produced by the friction of 
boring would necessarily be transferred through the 
w r hole mass, and from every part of that mass, caloric 
would be shaken loose by the tremor. Sir EL Davy, 
too, liquefied ice by the friction of two blocks against 
each other, and claimed that, as ice has no attraction 
for the oxygen of the air with which it was in contact, 
it could not have attracted caloric from the air, and 
therefore the greater heat of the water must be simply 
the motion of friction in a changed state. But the true 
theory is that there is an enormous amount of caloric 
"lying around loose," dashing from place to place, and, 



HEAT AND LIGHT. 41 

when the structure of the ice is destroyed by friction, 
this caloric enters into combination with it and forms 
water. Count Eumford also says: "It is -hardly nec- 
essary to add that anything which an insulated body 
or system of bodies, can continue to furnish without 
limitation cannot be a material substance." Exactly, 
but how can we insulate bodies from a substance which 
permeates all space, and which we know is not in the 
least hindered by an ordinary vacuum? 

Not only is light propagated through an ordinary 
vacuum, but heat also permeates one as easily as it 
does fluids or solids. A thermometer suspended in a 
vacuum by a single thread of silk, responds to every 
fluctuation of the temperature outside. The "mode of 
motion," philosophers utterly fail to account for this 
acknowledged fact, and this brings us to the analogy 
with sound, on which the modern writers so much 
depend. Now, sound cannot be propagated through 
a vacuum. A bell rung in a perfect vacuum awakens 
absolutely no response in the organs of hearing, because 
there is no medium through which the motion can be 
propagated, and if heat and light were analogous 
motions the same result must follow. Mr. Grove, 
indeed, claims that there is a slight remnant of air, or 
other ordinary matter, existing in every vacuum. But, 



42 THE 0XE GREAT FORCE. 

if this attenuated air were the actual medium, the light 
and heat transmitted by means of its vibrations would 
affect the nerves of sight and feeling less and less, in 
proportion to the greater tenuity of the medium. But 
not only are light and heat transmitted through the 
infinitely small remnant of air left in the vacuum, but 
they are transmitted with as much, if not more, facility, 
than when the ordinary medium is present; conse- 
quently they cannot be, like sound, mere vibrations ot 
that medium. 

Among other facts established by modern experiment, 
is the doctrine of a "mechanical equivalent of heat:" 
that is, the fact that a certain definite number of 
degrees of heat will always move the same weight the 
same distance. The advocates of the "mode of motion' ' 
theory claim that it is strengthened by the doctrine of 
mechanical equivalents, but this latter fact is even more 
easily explainable by the action of caloric than in any 
other way. What is heat, as measured by the thermom- 
eter? Simply the exercise of a force sufficient to move 
the mercury a certain distance. The establishment of 
the fact that the same amount of this force will move 
any other substance to a definite distance, does not 
change the problem in the least. Self-repulsion is the 
only intelligible force which can move either the mer- 
cury or its equivalent. 



CHAPTEE V. 

ELECTRICITY AXD MAGNETISM. 

That electricity and heat are in some manner corre- 
lated, lias long been evident. Each generates the other, 
but the precise connection between them has eluded 
the scrutiny of the most careful experimenters. The 
chief difference between them is that heat is diffused 
from its point of origin in every direction, and conse- 
quently with comparative moderation and evenness: 
while the characteristic of electricity is its intensity, its 
explosiveness, its tendency to act in channels or cur- 
rents. If heat is simply the self-repulsive element, ca- 
loric, electricity is caloric confined in channels or bubbles. 
Air, undisturbed, is viewless and soundless: mixed in 
rapid motion with water and other elements, by means 
of friction or otherwise, it takes the form of bubbles, 
covered with a slight film, visible to the eye, and which 
burst with a perceptible noise at the slightest change 
of pressure. Electricity is an analogous result produced 
by the intermixture of caloric wr&h other elements, 
usually by means of friction. The suddenness, which 



44 THE ONE GREAT FORCE. 

is an element of all electrical phenomena, is thoroughly 
in unison with this idea of explosiveness. 

A small amount of electricity, too, is conducted thou- 
sands of miles through an iron wire; while it would 
require an enormous consumption of matter by com- 
bustion, to send light and heat to such a distance 
through the open medium of the atmosphere. If the 
iron is furnished with minute channels which confine 
the caloric, and prevent its expending its force in a 
lateral direction, the reason of its producing far greater 
results in the shape of electricity than in that of heat, 
which radiates in every direction, is at once apparent. 
The action is almost precisely like that of powder in 
a gun barrel. If an ounce of powder be burned in 
open space, its force being diffused in every direction, 
produces no results except in the immediate vicinity, 
while, if confined to a single direction, it sends the 
bullet to its mark a mile away. Liquids do not con- 
duct electricity without being decomposed, because there 
are no channels in which the caloric can be confined. 

When two bodies are brought together, both having 
the necessary channels, but in one of which the chan- 
nels are full of caloric, and in the other comparatively 
emptj^, the self-repulsion of the element creates a cur- 
rent from the former to the latter, and the body which 



ELECTRICITY AND MAGNETISM. 45 

discharges the current is said to be in a state of posi- 
tive electricity, while that which receives it is negative. 
More or less escapes in the form of radiant heat, and 
this alone will account for the fact stated by Poggen- 
dorf, of Berlin, that the direct discharges of an electri- 
cal machine are hotter at its positive than at its negative 
pole. It has been ascertained also, that the friction of 
precisely the same substances produces nothing but 
heat, while the friction of heterogeneous bodies, though 
also producing heat, generally evolves more or less of 
electricity. Why is this? If heat and electricity are 
both vibratory motions, arising jointly from attraction 
and from the repulsive motion transferred to the sub- 
stances by friction, why is it that a definite amount of 
friction, transferred to a piece of sealing wax by 
another piece of sealing wax produces only radiant 
heat, while precisely the same amount of friction trans- 
ferred by a piece of flannel produces electricity. 

No reason can be given on the "mode of motion" 
theory. But, in truth, heat is caloric radiating freely, 
while electricity is caloric confined in channels or bub- 
bles. When two precisely similar substances are rubbed 
together, of course the same amount of caloric is lib- 
erated from each. It meets with equal force between 
the sides in contact, and is radiated into the atmos- 



46 



THE ONE GREAT FORCE. 



phere. But, when friction is caused between two 
substances of different internal construction, unequal 
amounts of caloric are jarred loose; whichever stream 
is the stronger necessarily overpowers the other, and, 
if the substances have the necessary channels, a cur- 
rent is produced from the body giving out the most 
caloric to the one giving out the least, and the essence 
of electricity is caloric moving in currents. 

When a current of electricity is passing through a 
body and the body is divided, the edges adjoining the 
fracture are found to be affected with different kinds 
of electricity; that is, the current is passing out of one 
part and into the other, thus: — >^-> | giving 
two kinds of electricity, but only one continuous * cur- 
rent; and the same is the case where two bodies oppo- 
sitely electrified are brought together. When two bodies 
both positively electrified are brought together, a stream 
of caloric is issuing from each, thus: 



so that, though the kinds of electricity are the same, 
there are two opposite, meeting currents. 

When two neighboring bodies are negatively elec- 
trified, caloric rushes into both from the atmosphere, 



thus : 



iW 



and again, with the same 



kind of electricity, there are two currents moving in 



ELECTRICITY AND MAGNETISM. 47 

opposite directions. It is easy enough to see that op- 
posite meeting or separating currents, as in the two 
last diagrams, would produce repulsion, and this we 
find by experiment is actually the case. As to the 
apparent attraction of substances oppositely electrified, 
that is, in which there is a continuous current from 
one to the other, the facts seem to be these: the posi- 
tive body has a surplus of electricity whose self-repul- 
sion continually excites it to escape, but it is partially 
restrained by the pressure of caloric outside. TThen a 
negative body is brought close to it, there is no pres- 
sure from that side, because there the caloric is o'oin^ 
the other way: therefore the pressure on the other 
sides pushes the two bodies together. In case of light 
bodies, silk, pith balls, etc., this pressure is sufficient 
to overcome gravitation and produce apparent attrac- 
tion ; the workings of this same force on certain heavier 
bodies is called magnetism, and will be dwelt upon 
presently. When the approach of a negative body to a 
positive one takes away the restraining pressure on that 
side, the confined caloric frequently leaps out to a consid- 
erable distance. When it bursts from one cloud to an- 
other, or from a cloud to the earth, it is called lightning. 
Experiments also show that electricity can hardly be 
made to cross a vacuum, and therefore Mr. Grove con- 



48 THE 0XE GEEAT FORCE. 

eludes that electricity being a mode of motion of ordi- 
nary matter, is interrupted by a space from which, such 
matter is absent. But we know that light and heat 
are not interrupted by a vacuum, consequently we must 
look for some other cause. This cause we find in the 
fact that electricity is caloric acting in channels, and, 
as a vacuum furnishes no outside compression, the 
caloric on entering it is dissipated as electricity, though 
still existing as radiant heat. In accordance with the 
above views we find, by the experiment of Matteucei, 
that bismuth conducts electricity better in the direction 
of the planes of cleavage, than across them. "Why? 
Evidently because there are channels in that direction 
for it to run in. 

The workings of magnetism are perhaps the most 
mysterious, to ordinary apprehensions, of all the differ- 
ent manifestations of natural power with which we are 
acquainted. That a bit of iron or lodestone should 
overcome the power of gravitation, which seems so 
universal, and draw upward other pieces of the same 
metal; that, when poised, it should invariably assume 
a north and south direction, seems at first, scarcely less 
than miraculous, and might well excuse the phantasy 
of the old writers who endowed the maenet with a living 
soul. As in the case of suction, oTavitation, lightning:, 



ELECTKICITY AND MAGNETISM. 49 

etc., the first attempt to explain it was by attraction. 
The lodestone was said to have in it an extraordinary 
attractive power, sufficient to overcome that of gravita- 
tion, and there was supposed to be an enormously 
large magnet near the north pole, which attracted all 
the other magnets toward it. 

Advancing science, however, has established the cor- 
relation of magnetism and electricity, until it is now 
thoroughly understood that the former is, in some way, 
produced by electric currents. The general opinion, 
however, of English scientists is, that electric currents, 
like other manifestations of force, are only a species of 
11 molecular polarization," and that magnetism comes 
under the same head. But this same " molecular 
polarization" depends on the attraction and repulsion 
of ordinary matter, and, as attraction is impossible, we 
must look to the action of a self-repellent fluid on inert 
matter. In trying to find how the currents of this 
fluid affect the lodestone or iron so as to produce the 
phenomena of magnetism, we shall proceed most se- 
curely by observing the method by which artificial 
magnets are made. This is done by passing a heavy 
electric current through (in ordinary phrase) a bar of iron. 
If soft iron be used, a temporary magnetization is the 
result ; if hard, a permanent one. Though Mr. Grove's 



50 THE ONE GREAT FORCE. 

ideas of " molecular polarization" are extremely vague, 
yet his explanation of the manner in which electric 
currents act in forming a magnet is so clear, that I 
cannot do better than to quote it : 

" Suppose a number of wind vanes, say of the shape 
of arrows, with the spindles on which they revolve 
arranged in a row, but the vanes pointing in different 
directions ; a wind blowing from the same point with a 
uniform velocity will instantly arrange these vanes in 
a definite direction, the arrow-heads or narrow parts 
pointing one way, the swallow-tails or broad parts 
another. If they are delicately suspended, a very gen- 
tle breeze will so arrange them, and a gentle breeze 
will again deflect them ; or if the wind cease and they 
have been originally subject to other forces, such as 
gravity from unequal suspension, they will return to 
irregular positions, themselves creating a slight breeze 
by their return. Such a state of things will represent 
the state of the molecules of soft iron ; electricity act- 
ing on them — not indeed in straight lines but in a defi- 
nite direation — produces a polar arrangement, which 
they will lose as soon as the dynamic inducing force 
is removed. 

"Let us now suppose the vanes, instead of turning 
easily, to be more stiffly fixed to the axles, so as to be 



ELECTRICITY AND MAGNETISM. 51 

turned with difficulty; it will require a stronger wind 
to move them and arrange them definitely, but when 
so arranged they will retain their position ; and should 
a gentle breeze spring up in another direction, it will 
not alter their position, but will itself be definitely 
deflected. Should the conditions of force and stability 
be intermediate, both the breeze and the yanes will be 
slightly deflected; or if there be no breeze and the 
spindles be all moved in any direction, preserving their 
linear relation, they will themselves create a breeze. 
Thus it is with the molecules of hard iron or steel in 
permanent magnets; they are polarized with greater 
difficulty, but, when so polarized, they cannot be affected 
by a feeble current of electricity. Again, if the magnets 
be moved, they themselves originate a current of elec- 
tricity, and lastly, the magnetic polarity and the electric 
current may be both mutually affected." 

This shows as clearly as possible that magnetism is 
not an inherent attribute of the magnetic substance, 
but is the result of the action of electric currents upon 
it. As, moreover, we cannot produce an artificial mag- 
net except by subjecting it to the action of an electric 
current, it is, in the absence of any other known method, 
but fair to presume that the natural magnet is formed 
in the same way, except that in the latter case the fiery 



52 THE OXE GREAT FORCE. 

agent comes fresh from Nature's laboratory, and in the 
former from an electric battery. As these currents 
cannot be caused by an attraction which has been 
demonstrated impossible, they must be referred to the 
self-repulsion of an actual fluid which we call caloric. 
The next inquiry is as to what direction the currents 
take in regard to the iron, in order to make it mag- 
netic, and again the best method of answering it is to 
look at the means used to produce artificial magnetism. 
One method is to send a strong current of electricity 
through (as is generally supposed,) a piece of iron: the 
other is to send one around it by means of a spiral 
coil of wire. In the latter case, we know that the cur- 
rent does go around the iron, while in the former, 
though we use the word through, yet we only know 
that the electricity, in some way, gets from one end of 
the iron to the other; it may go through, or it may, 
as in the former case, go spirally about it. All the 
positive evidence is in favor of the spiral direction of 
the currents, because we only know with certainty that 
we can produce magnetism in this way, and, as precisely 
the same result is obtained by the transmission of an 
ordinary electric discharge along the magnet, it is most 
philosophical to suppose that these identical results 
have been produced by like causes, and that the cur- 



ELECTKICITY AND MAGNETISM. 53 

rent, in all cases, passes around the iron spirally, in 
order to produce magnetism. 

Besides, it cannot be that the mere conduction of an 
electric current produces magnetism in heavy bodies, 
for, if it did, silver, which has eight times the conduct- 
ive power of iron, would be, in that proportion, more 
magnetic than the latter substance, while, in fact, it 
has no magnetic properties whatever. The theory of 
Ampere, which is sustained by the experiments of 
Oersted, is evidently the true one; the channels which 
conduct caloric in iron and a few other substances are 
different from those in most electric conductors, running 
spirally in such manner that the current encloses the 
iron. When the ends of two pieces of iron are brought 
together, in one of which the current is circulating from 
the end towards the center, and in the other from the 
center toward the end, they are said to be endowed 
with opposite polarity, but there is a continuous current 
which results in apparent attraction; while, if both 
currents are going towards the center, or towards the 
end, there is similar polarity, but opposite movement of 
the currents, producing repulsion. That this is the 
true reason for the apparent attraction of magnetism, 
is also shown by experiments recorded in many works 
on electricity, proving that there is a repulsive action 



54 THE ONE GREAT FORCE. 

set up between two wires along which electrical cur- 
rents are moving in opposite directions, but that, when 
the currents move in the same direction along each wire, 
they produce attraction. 

But, though Ampere has correctly stated the relation 
of the currents from which attraction results, yet he 
fails to show how it is that the flow of a continuous 
current around two magnetic substances causes them 
to approach each other. In fact, there can be no such 
thing as attraction in nature, and in this case, as in all 
others, apparent attraction is due to outside pressure. 
The whirling currents enclose the iron, cutting off all 
pressure from the sides, and creating a kind of eddy, 
while the ever active fluid on the outside presses 
against the outermost ends and drives the magnetized 
bodies together. 

A further proof that the magnetic current always 
acts in a spiral direction, is found in the fact that after 
it leaves the conductor it still maintains its spirality. 
This is plainly shown by a little experiment recorded 
by Grove, when speaking of light. When a raj r of 
polarized light is submitted to magnetic action, it is 
twisted, "as if," in the words of Mr. Gr., "a card had 
been driven forcibly through a grooved rifle barrel." 
Connecting this last fact with the production of mag- 



ELECTEICITY A^D MAGNETISM. 55 

netism by electricity passing around the magnet, and 
it is difficult to see how any one can resist the con- 
clusion that magnetism results from the formation of a 
kind of eddy within the spirally revolving currents of 
electricity or caloric. 

These spiral channels in the magnetic substance are 
evidently opened by a blast of electricity, permanently 
in the case of hard iron, temporarily in that of soft, as 
explained in the quotation from Grove. The channels 
once opened, the rays of caloric everywhere flying 
through space strike into and pass through them, until 
some new disturbing clause closes them up. This theory 
also accounts for the remarkable results of an experi- 
ment recorded by Professor Tyndall. After magnet- 
izing a part of a link of a chain cable by means of a 
coil of wire, around it, he suspended a piece of silver 
between the poles by a twisted cord, and found that 
the thread was prevented from untwisting, when the 
current was in circulation, by a certain viscousness or 
thickness of the atmosphere; "as if," says the profes- 
sor," the silver piece were struggling in treacle." When 
he undertook to penetrate this strange invisible obstruc- 
tion, it was like sawing through soft cheese. This can 
easily be accounted for on the theory of spiral cur- 
rents, and on no other. The two eddies at the poles 



56 THE ONE GREAT FORCE. 

of the magnet exercise a repulsive power on the dia- 
magnetic silver or copper, holding it in its place and 
preventing the string from untwisting. It will perhaps 
be clearer, if Ave imagine two big pairs of bellows send- 
ing two very strong currents of air exactly against 
each other, and a broad thin object placed between 
them ; would there not be some difficulty in twisting it 
around? Not only silver, but all other non-magnetic sub- 
stances are feebly repelled by a magnet, showing clearly 
that magnetism is originally a repulsive power, and 
only becomes attractive when the spiral channels of 
magnetic substances create a vortex in its lightning- 
like waves. 

If the electric current went straight through the 
magnetic substance, whatever force it exerted would 
tend to bring the body in line with the current, but, as 
it goes round and round it, the repulsive force of the 
fluid compels the iron to lie lengthwise of the vortex 
in which it is enveloped, but crosswise of the general 
course of the current. This last fact, after numerous 
investigations, is set forth as a law by Ampere. A 
homely illustration is seen when a stick is thrown into 
an eddy. The faster the water flows the more nearly 
the stick assumes a perpendicular position, that is, a 
position at right angles with the current. If the water 



ELECTKICITY AXD MAGNETISM. 57 

went as fast as lightning, the stick would certainly be 
entirely perpendicular. For this reason the electric 
currents around the earth, when they strike a magnet 
and begin to circle around it, compel it into a position 
at right angles to their course, or nearly north and 
south. 



CHAPTEE VI 

CHEMICAL AFFINITY 'AND COHESION. 

These are the most universal of all the affections of 
matter, and are the ones in which the workings of 
attraction appear at first sight to be the most complete. 
Cohesion designates the power which binds particles of 
the same nature in a single mass, while chemical affin- 
ity is the name applied to that mysterious force which 
compels different primary substances to unite together 
in certain definite proportions, thus forming other sub- 
stances, with qualities often entirely unlike those of 
their ingredients. This certainly looks like attraction, 
but so does the forcing of water up a tube from which 
the air has been, exhausted, and so does the motion of 
iron towards a magnet. As, however, it is impossible 
that there should be any such thing as attraction, let 
us see if the phenomena of chemical affinity and cohe- 
sion cannot be explained by the law of self-repulsion. 

Caloric is locked up in all substances, between the 
atoms; the pressure of caloric from the outside holds 



CHEMICAL AFFINITY AND COHESION. 59 

these atoms together, and the hardness of the substance 
is in proportion to the closeness with which the atoms 
are fitted to each other. The same amount of caloric 
always expands with equal force, and, in any substance, 
the force of the enclosed caloric must be less than the 
outside pressure, or else the body would be disinte- 
grated by its own internal power. When atoms of the 
same kind are in a mass together, the walls of the cells 
are of the same strength; consequently no internal 
change takes place, and the external pressure (not 
merely of the atmosphere, but of free caloric,) drives 
the atoms together with a force which is commonly 
called cohesion. 

When, however, different substances are intimately 
mingled, the walls of their cells are of different degrees 
of strength. If two adjoining cells be represented by 
"a" and u b," thus: 0® it is evident that, so long as 
the pressure on the central wall is equal from each 
side, it will not be torn down, but if, in place of ' : b," 
we substitute another cell, "c," in which the caloric is 
more compressed than in "a," it will overcome the 
pressure of u a" and produce a rupture. If "c" con- 
tains less force than : 'a,'" it will be overcome by the 
latter and the same result will follow. When different 
substances are mixed in certain definite proportions, 



60 THE ONE GREAT FORCE. 

determined by the character of both, there will be 
enough of these iveak points in the mixture to produce 
a mingling f the whole in a homogeneous mass, which 

DO O 7 

will have a new set of cells, and will affect all our 
senses differently from either of the component sub- 
stances; and this effect of the self- repulsion of caloric 
is called chemical affinity. 

Equality in the amount of force locked up in the 
different cells is fatal to chemical affinity, but is highly 
promotive of cohesion. It is like leaning together a 
dozen sticks to support each other; if they are all 
heavy, or all light, the equal balance between them 
will prevent their being borne to the earth by gravita- 
tion, but if we put a few very light ones, or a few very 
heavy ones, on one side, either the others will overbear 
them or they will overbear the others, and the whole 
will fall into a single, confused heap. But the change 
would have to be made in definite proportions. If we 
only substituted one light stick, the balance would 
probably still be near enough equal to prevent a col- 
lapse; while if we substituted eleven, a new equality 
would be introduced with the same result. Coarse as 
this illustration is, we believe it will give a pretty fair 
idea of the workings of chemical affinity. 

Often, when different substances are intermingled, the 



CHE3IICAL AFFINITY AND COHESION. 61 

enclosed caloric is not sufficient to burst the walls until 
a sudden shock is given, generally by electricity, when, 
the breaking process being once started, the old walls 
are instantly destroyed, precisely like a child's house of 
cards, which falls at the slightest disturbance. The 
diamond, so far as chemical analysis can determine, is 
pure carbon; charcoal is the same; and, if simple 
attraction caused the cohesiveness of both, the substance 
being the same, there is no reason why the cohesive- 
ness of the two should not be equal. As, however, 
cohesion depends, not on internal attraction, but on 
external pressure, we can easily understand how the 
arrangement of the particles would cause greater hard- 
ness in the substance, in proportion as the closeness of 
their fit prevented the caloric from penetrating between 
them. 

Whenever the proportion of caloric to ordinary mat- 
ter in any substance is large, the application of flame 
breaks down some of the walls, and then the escaping 
caloric, by its violence, tears down others, and so on till 
the structure of the substance is destroyed by combus- 
tion. Generally, this process is assisted by the presence 
of oxygen, an elastic gas, containing a large proportion 
of caloric, which escapes readily and aids in breaking 
down the cellular walls of the combustible. 



62 THE ONE GEEAT FORCE. 

Sometimes, in the operations of nature or art, an 
enormous amount of caloric becomes locked up in 
weak cells, but is so precisely balanced by the out- 
side pressure that it does not escape until, by the addi- 
tion of heat, the equilibrium is destroyed ; then all the 
enclosed caloric rushes forth at once, and explosion is 
the consequence. 



CHAPTER TIL 



OTHER INORGANIC FORCES. 



Adhesion is one of the simplest forms of outside 
pressure fastening substances together, and producing 
apparent attraction. One of its most familiar examples 
is seen when a boy fits a piece of wet leather neatly 
to a smooth stone, and lifts them both together. In 
this case the air is excluded, and the pressure of that 
element from the outside holds the leather to the stone. 
A similar result is attained when we fasten two pieces 
of wood together with glue, or two pieces of paper 
with mucilage. In these and all similar cases, the 
whole secret of adhesion is to make a mixture through 
which but little caloric will pass. Then, with this ever 
moving, self-repellent fluid working against the outside, 
without being able to penetrate between the two sub- 
stances, they can only be torn apart by muscular force, 
which last is but another exemplification of the power 
of caloric, as will be shown in the next chapter. 



64 THE OXE GREAT FORCE. 

Elasticity is still another species of force, which can 
be traced directly to the self-repulsion of caloric. When 
that element is locked up in the minute globules of 
different substances, being equally self-repellent in every 
direction, it has a tendency to force the inside of each 
cell into a spherical form. Sometimes the small amount 
of the enclosed . caloric allows the atoms to be arranged 
in their original cubical form, thus producing crystals, 
and, in proportion as this is the case, the substance is 
without elasticity. Extremely cold substances are never 
elastic, of which fact the destruction of the elasticity of 
iron by extreme cold is a familiar proof. When, how- 
ever, these spherical cells are very numerous in a sub- 
stance, it is highly elastic, and its elasticity acts in this 
way: if the substance is bent, the cells on the side 
toward which it is bent are flattened, while those on 



the other side are elongated, thus: jLojLflV «v When 




the bending power is withdrawn, the caloric again 
forces the cells into a spherical form, because that is 
the shape in which it has most room to exert its self- 
repellent power; and thus one side is pulled, and the 
other is pushed, back to its original position. 

Most substances only show their elasticity when bent 
in a lateral direction, but some articles, such as India- 



OTHER INORGANIC FORCES. 65 

rubber, can be elongated with remarkable ease. In this 
case all the cells are drawn out thus: 



but, as soon as the stretching force is withdrawn, they 
resume their globular form, thus: 



ooooo 
o o o o O 



Capillary Attraction is another mode of force 
arising from the self-repulsion of caloric, which has 
been explained in Chapter III. 

The Tidal Wave is another exemplification of appar- 
ent attraction, but of actual repulsion. Force is acting 
on the globe from every side; the moon cuts off some 
of this force from the portion of the globe opposite to 
it, and the outside pressure crowds the water up under 
the moon. This is plain enough, but why is the water 
at the same time lifted upon the opposite side of the 
earth from the moon? Herschel acknowledged the ap- 
parent absurdity of attributing this phenomenon to the 
attraction of the moon, and attempted to explain it by 
a calculation of the difference in attraction between one 
side -of the moon and the other, which appears to me 
at once unintelligible and inadequate. 

It can, however, be easily explained on the theory 
of outside pressure. The sea is not a mere body of 
inert particles, but an elastic substance, covering the 
greater part of the earth ; that is, a substance in which 



66 THE OXE GREAT FORCE. 

caloric is enclosed, and which expands in length when 
a pressure is applied at the sides, and the reverse. 
Let us represent this elastic substance, sustaining pres- 



sure from all sides, thus: __^(V— b Now remove the 



A 

c 




force a, (as is done by the interposition of the moon.) 
Now there will be a double pressure in the direction 
d c, and only a single pressure in the direction a b. 
The result is that each elastic particle has a tendency to 
be elongated in the direction transverse to the greatest 

4- p 

pressure, thus: c — > ^-" B and the joint action of bil- 
lions of these particles produces the tides on both sides 
of the earth at once, in a line transverse to the line of 
greatest pressure. 



OHAPTEE Till. 



ORGANIC FORCES. 



The weight of opinion in former times seems to have 
been that the heat, which all could see was necessary 
to animal and vegetable life, acted rather as an oil to 
lubricate, or a stimulus to set in motion, the vital ma- 
chinery, than as a force of itself, and the living body 
was supposed to exert some kind of a power of its 
own, usually called the vital principle. A long train of 
experiments by different modern philosophers has sug- 
gested, with more or less distinctness, the identity of 
heat with this vital force, which builds up the vegetable 
kingdom and operates on the blood and muscles of the 
animal. 

Among the most distinguished of the writers on this 
subject is Dr. Carpenter, who, in an essay on the Corre- 
lation of Physical and Vital Forces, shows conclusively 
that heat is the force which drives forward both plants 
and animals in their growth and action; that, in regard 
to the former, the necessary heat is evolved from earth, 



68 THE ONE GREAT FORCE. 

air and water, wliile in the case of animals, it is elabo- 
rated principally from the food they eat, and that it 
then performs mechanical labor, very much as it does 
in a steam engine. 

He divides organic action into two parts, the force 
which directly produces growth or action, and the germ 
power ) or peculiar principle, which is only directory. 
By means of this directive agency, the heat acts in 
particular channels, producing the millions on millions 
of varieties of plants and animals throughout the world. 
As to the nature of this germ power or directive 
agency, we are still in the dark, and Agassiz mentions 
this development of different animals from apparently 
similar germs, as one of the strongest evidences of the 
interposition of a creative will in the affairs of earth. 

But, though we cannot explain the origin of the 
directive channels through which the vital force acts, 
we can see that the power itself is heat, both in plants 
and animals. The greater the heat, the greater the 
force and activity of the organization. Without suffi- 
cient heat, a seed may remain undeveloped for an 
unknown length of time, yet retaining all its germinal 
nature, ready to give direction to the force of heat 
whenever it shall be applied. The process of malting 
depends entirely on the certainty of producing a defi- 



ORGANIC FORCES. 69 

nite advancement of germination in the seed by a 
definite increase of heat. 

How heat can produce the different organic move- 
ments, Dr. 0. is unable to explain, and indeed, if we 
adopt the doctrine of Tyndall, and others, that heat is 
but a mode of motion, and not due to the properties 
of an actual fluid, it is as difficult to understand how 
the single force, attraction, can produce the circulation 
of the blood as the circulation of the solar system. 
But the action of the self-repellent fluid, caloric, makes 
all plain, so far as the motion alone is concerned. En- 
tering into the plant through the roots and leaves, the 
caloric, by its self-repulsion, drives the sap through the 
veins, and pushes the solid substances derived from the 
earth up where they will strengthen the trunk. By 
means of that destruction of cellular walls which Ave 
call chemical affinity, it produces out of different ingre- 
dients new and more plastic compounds, and these it 
pushes into their places, where, by the further action 
of the self-repulsion of caloric, that element is driven 
out of the fluids, leaving them deposited as solids, so 
that, in the words of Dr. Carpenter, "the final cause 
or purpose of the whole vital activity of the plant, so 
far as the individual is concerned, is an indefinite 
extension of the dense, woody, almost inert, but per- 



70 THE OXE GREAT FORCE. 

manent portions of the fabric, by the successional 
development, decay and renewal of the soft, active, and 
transitory cellular parenchyma." We have seen, in the 
case of magnetism, that a certain arrangement of the 
inert particles of a substance, a certain medium between 
total obstruction and entire liberty to the currents of 
caloric, causes them to move in a spiral direction, and 
the same law, whose operation is seen in magnetism 
and the action of polarized light on certain substances, 
is also discovered in the spiral course of vines and 
twining plants, as the caloric in their veins overcomes 
the inertia in their woody matter. 

The correlation between heat and animal life is still 
more evident. Caloric escapes from the food taken 
into the stomach. It is self-repellent; it must do some- 
thing : if it be allowed any space at all, it must change 
its position with lightning-like rapidity. It pushes its 
way into the chyle, and thence into the blood. Still 
it is self-repellent, and, by its own inherent force, it 
drives the blood before it to the extremities and back 
again to the heart, always following the direction 
marked out by the unexplained germ power. Then it 
escapes through the pores of the skin, or otherwise, 
giving way to a fresh supply of the same self-repellent 
element. 



0RGAXIC. FORCES. 71 

The greater the amount of caloric the more easily it 
carries the inert matter with it; consequently, in strict 
accordance with this theory, the hot blood rushes along 
with torrent-like rapidity, the cold blood creeps with 
slow and lagging motion. So far as the circulation of 
the blood is concerned, the doctrine of Harvey has been 
universally received, that the contraction of the walls 
of the heart propels the blood through the arterial 
tubes and back through the veins, the direction of its 
movements being insured by a proper arrangement of 
the valves. On this subject the eminent physiologist, 
Professor Draper, well remarks : 

"But, when comparative anatomy and physiological 
botany were more extensively cultivated, it was seen 
that this doctrine is insufficient; for the unity of Na- 
ture forbids us to believe that nutritious juices are 
circulated in different tribes of life by different forces. 
And, though it may be true that the contractions of 
that central impelling mechanism (the heart.) regulate 
the circulation in the organisms which have a heart, 
what is to be made of those countless numbers which 
have none? . In this group we find the whole vegeta- 
ble creation, and a majority of the animal." 

And again: "The circulation of sap in plants, and 
of blood through many of the lower animals which 



72 THE 0XE GREAT FORCE. 

have no heart, is active during summer, checked by 
cold nights, and wholly arrested during winter." 

The pulsations of the heart are rather the effect than 
the cause of the flow of the blood, the latter action 
having for final cause the self-repulsion of caloric. 
"Forty-five minutes," says Hunter, "after the vessels 
of the neck of a tortoise had been divided, the pulsa- 
tions of its heart were augmented from nineteen per 
minute to thirty-five, by increasing the temperature from 
that of the room to 90°." 

Xumerons modern experiments confirm this theory, 
one of which, by Herr S. L. Schenck, is as follows: 
" Examining the heart of the chick in the egg of the 
fowl, he discovered that its movements are at first quite 
independent of the central nervous system, and may 
be regarded as simple contractions of the protoplasm. 
When the heat is removed it still beats, if maintained 
at a temperature of 34° to 36° centigrade. The most 
powerful microscope fails to show any trace of nervous 
ganglion; hence he concludes that the contractions of 
the heart are due simply to the action of heat on the 
protoplasm." 

Yes, heat, heat, heat, with self-repulsion as its attri- 
bute, is the universal material cause of motion, whether 
in the orbits of planets or the veins of a tortoise. 



ORGANIC FORCES. 73 

Again I quote from Dr. Carpenter: "That the 
developmental force which occasions the evolution of 
the germ in the higher vertebrates is really supplied 
by the heat to which the ovum is subjected, may be 
regarded as a fact established beyond all question. In 
frogs and other amphibia, which have no special means 
of imparting a high temperature to their eggs, the rate 
of development (which, in the early stages, can be 
readily determined with great exactness,) is entirely 
governed by the degree of warmth to which the ovum 
is subjected." The same is true (though perhaps it 
cannot be so definitely measured,) of the eggs of ser- 
pents and birds, and also of the ova of mammalia, 
which receive the heat necessary for their development 
before their separation from the mother. 

Another remarkable illustration of the power of heat, 
or caloric, is found in the phenomena of reparation. 
Certain cold-blooded animals are so constructed that, 
when a portion of their organism is cut off from the 
rest, even to the extent of a whole limb, a new one 
will grow out in its place, as the hair and nails grow 
on the human frame. But, says Dr. Carpenter: "Not 
only can the rate at which they take place be experi- 
mentally shown to bear a direct relation to the tem- 
perature at which these animals are subjected, but it 
6 



74 THE ONE GREAT FOKCE. 

has been ascertained that any extraordinary act of 

reparation, such as the reproduction of a limb in the 
salamander, will only be performed under the influence 
of a temperature much higher than that required for 
the maintenance of the ordinary vital activity." 

Freezing and burning of the flesh are the result of 
apparently opposite causes, and, at first, produce oppo- 
site sensations on the nerves; yet their physical effects 
on the flesh are nearly the same. Why? Because 
both freezing and burning result in tearing down the 
cellular walls of the flesh. These cells, in their normal 
condition, contain caloric in nearly equal amounts. 
When a heated body is placed against the skin, a larger 
amount of caloric than usual finds its waj^ into the 
outer cells. Adjoining these are the interior cells, much 
less distended by heat, and, where the difference is very 
great, the expansiveness of caloric in the distended cells 
breaks down the filmy tissues between them and the 
others, producing a blister. When a cold substance is 
placed against the outside of the flesh, the caloric 
leaves the outer cells, and the expansiveness of that 
element confined in the others also breaks down the 
tissues, and produces the same result as in case of a 
surplus. The operation of the caloric in tearing down 
the tissues is about the same as in chemical affinity. 



ORGANIC FORCES. 75 

only in that case the adjoining cells are made weaker 
or stronger by the substitution of others belonging to 
different substances, and, in this case, by exhausting or 
overcharging those that already lie side by side. 

Still more evident is the operation of caloric in 
producing muscular motion, which Dr. Carpenter does 
not include among the correlated manifestations, but 
mentions as "the most important consideration of all, 
namely : the source of that contractile power which the 
living muscle possesses, but which the dead muscle, 
though having the same chemical composition, is utterly 
incapable of exerting." 

In producing this contraction of the muscles, there 
are two steps: the mind (in man — the instinct in lower 
animals,) acts by means of the brain on the nerves, anjl 
these act on the muscles. The first of these steps we 
must as yet leave among the mysteries, but the action 
of the nerves on the muscles, producing the contraction 
of the latter, is due entirely to the self-repulsion of ca- 
loric. That element, elaborated from food and air, is 
stored away in the different tissues of the body. All 
muscles are of a long oval shape, with a swell in the 
center, so that their expansion laterally produces contrac- 
tion in length. By some, as yet, unexplained power, 
the mind opens the infinitesimal valves of the nerves so 



76 THE ONE GREAT FORCE. 

as to admit caloric into the empty muscles. Instantly 
its self-repulsion drives the sides of the muscles out- 
ward, and that pulls the end upward, thus moving the 
bone to which it is attached. 

Numerous experiments show the truth of this theory. 
Sending an electric current aldng the nerves of an 
animal in a direction from the brain, produces con- 
traction of the muscles in which these nerves are 
inserted; that is to say, it expands them in breadth 
but contracts them in length. If the leg of a frog be 
curled up into the smallest possible space, an electric 
current will cause it to stretch out to its greatest length, 
as if the animal's instinct, had ordered it to hop its best. 
The case is precisely the same as if an elliptical India- 
rubber bag had been curled up, and then expanded by 
the admission of air. 

Still further evidence on the point is furnished by 
the fact that successive slices of animal muscle exhibit 
different kinds of electricity, the inside being positive, 
the outside negative ; that is, the caloric is slowly mak- 
ing its way through the muscular tissues from the in- 
side outward. As it escapes, its place must be supplied 
from other parts of the body, and thus the whole sys- 
tem may be exhausted (producing the sensation of 
fatigue,) by the long continued exertion of one arm. 



ORGANIC FORCES. 77 

Surprise has often been expressed at the enormous 
power exerted by the muscle in lifting the lever-like 
bone of the arm, the muscle being attached close to 
the fulcrum, while the weight is placed on the further 
end, thus greatly increasing the force necessary to raise 
it. It is evident that the same substance whose self- 
repulsion produces motion across the illimitable fields 
of space at the rate of millions of miles per minute, 
and rolls planets and satellites along their mighty or- 
bits, must, when admitted into the muscles, swell them 
in width and contract them in length with tremendous 
force, and that is the only material power with which 
we are acquainted that can produce such results. 

But the strongest evidence of the true nature of mus- 
cular action is to be found in the examination of the 
muscles themselves. We see at once that when we lift 
a heavy weight the muscles are swollen in thickness, 
and, if we dissect them, we find that the separate fibrils 
are swollen by apparent contraction. In its construc- 
tion (see Draper's Physiology,) each fibril is a series of 
cells, the diameter of which varies as the muscle is in 
the contractile or relaxed state, but which may be taken 
on an average at the one-thousandth part of an inch. 
When the fibril is in a relaxed state, the longest axis 
of each cell coincides with the length of the fibril, but, 



78 THE 0XE GREAT FORCE. 

when contractions occur, this axis shortens, the trans- 
verse axis broadens, and a shortening of the entire 
fibril is the result. The most accurate tests that can 
be applied show no diminution in the volume of a 
muscle when contracted, and Draper, while objecting to 
the kind of test used, says that if the instruments were 
delicate enough, they could probably show the " prepos- 
terous result of an increase of volume by contraction." 
Certainly, if it were contraction, such a result would be 
preposterous, but it is really expansion. The Professor 
also says, it is well known that the muscle becomes 
warmer when contracting; this strengthens the argu- 
ment in favor of the theory that the contraction of 
muscles in length is the result of their expansion in 
width by the caloric admitted into them. Again, the 
same author, in speaking of the knots or swellings in 
the nerves, called ganglia, says : " Ganglia permit the 
influence passing along the nervous cords to escape 
therefrom into new channels, and also retain and store 
up nervous power. They become, therefore, magazines 
of force, and are hence capable of sustaining rhythmic 
movements." It cannot be that a mere abstract attrac- 
tive power could be retained in a knot or swelling. 
Certainly not. Something which requires space for its 
operation must be confined in these " magazines of 
force," and caloric is the only element which, in its own 
self-repulsion, contains a permanent fountain of force. 



ORGANIC FORCES. 79 

The power of electricity to produce longitudinal con- 
traction (lateral expansion) of the muscles, has already 
been alluded to. If heat and electricity are, as is gen- 
erally believed, identical forces, then we would natu- 
rally suppose that heat, if properly applied, would pro- 
duce the same result, and this idea we find to be borne 
out by experiment. Hunter has left this statement: 
" I took three pieces of muscle from the neck of a sheep 
just bled to death, each of them an inch and a half in 
length, and put them into separate vessels of water, at 
temperatures of 80°, 110°, and 120°, when the one in 
the first vessel contracted one-third of an inch in three 
minutes ; the second one-half an inch ; and 'the third 
three-fourths in one minute and a half." Can this pos- 
sibly be anything else than the self-repulsion of caloric 
in the cells of the muscles ? 

Forms of speech often gain wide currency among the 
people w T hich cannot, at the time of their origin, be 
proven to be strictly true, but which have nevertheless 
been selected with apparently instinctive insight to ex- 
press the ideas which subsequent investigations demon- 
strate to be correct. Thus, housewives frequently say 
that when flour is ground too fine it "takes the life 
out of it." This has generally been considered a tol- 
erably fair expression of the fact that the nourishing 
value of the flour w r as diminished, and nothing more, 
but it would be difficult to give a more literal state- 



80 THE ONE GREAT FORCE. 

ment of the truth. Caloric is shut up in the flour. 
When the latter is reduced to excessively small parti- 
cles, the former escapes; consequently there is a less 
amount to be set free by the process of digestion; to 
enter into the blood, the nerves, the muscles, and there 
by its self-repellent power to produce that motion for 
which the word life is but another name. 

So, too, the expressive word "fire-water," which the 
Indians apply to intoxicating liquors, conveys a literal 
truth. It is the fire, the caloric, shut up in the liquor, 
which escapes from it into the veins and nerves. By 
its self-repellent power it gives greater rapidity to the 
blood, and for a while distends the muscles with more 
than ordinary force. But, in its fiery course it disor- 
ganizes the delicate tissues, so that the natural amount 
of caloric evolved from food is not properly retained, 
and consequent weakness is the result. The will of 
man, too, is capable of controlling the nerves when only 
a moderate amount of caloric courses through them, 
but, when the enormous amount evolved from alco- 
hol is added, all control over the tiny valves which 
regulate its flow is lost, and a hundred involuntary 
movements betray the ungoverned action of the self- 
repellent fluid. 



CHAPTEE IX. 

REMARKS. 

The impossibility that attraction should be the basis 
of natural phenomena has probably suggested itself to 
many minds. Newton saw its absurdity as mentioned 
in Chapter I. [Since writing the foregoing, I find that 
Xewton actually expressed the opinion that gravitation 
was caused by a subtle ether pervading all space, only 
stopping short at the mode of its operation.] Faraday 
has demonstrated its inconsistency with the law of the 
conservation of force. But none appear to have enun- 
ciated the actual law. The nearest approach to the 
truth, which I have as yet discovered, is in a few inci- 
dental notes to a work entitled "A System of Logic," 
by a Mr. Gregory, which has come under my notice 
since I began this work. Mr. Gr. says: "That the sun 
really attracts or draws the earth or any other planet, 
is an absolute impossibility, because it has no hold on 
them, and consequently it can no more draw them 
than it can empty space. * * * * Th. e proofs given 
of this law (gravitation,) are quite fallacious, so far as 



82 THE ONE GREAT FORCE. 

they attempt to show that there is any real attraction, 
their authors having overlooked the fact that all the 
phenomena may result from a compulsive instead of an 
attractive force. * * * Attraction, without con- 
nection, is a manifest impossibility. Another difficulty 
in the way of attraction is that the bodies are inani- 
mate, and therefore it is evidently as impossible for 
them to move either themselves or other bodies as it 
is for a rock to move itself from one mountain to 
another." 

Mr. Gr., however, gives no decided opinion as to the 
true cause, but supposes it may be from waves of gravi- 
tation, acting from the outside, and says: "According 
to this view, gravitation is a compulsive and not an 
attractive force, as it is constantly termed, or in other 
words it is a pushing and not a pulling force." 

This expresses the truth very correctly as to the 
mode of action, but where do the leaves come from? 
It is idle to refer motion to some other motion ; we 
must seek some permanent attribute of matter on which 
to found it, and the self-repulsion of caloric is the only 
one which will produce the known result. Dr. S. S. 
Metcalfe, of Transylvania College, Kentucky, author of 
a voluminous work on caloric, grasped the fact that 
the self-repulsion of that element was a great agent in 



REMARKS. 83 

producing motion, but he spoiled his theory by adding 
that caloric, while repelling its own particles, attracted 
those of ordinary matter; both attraction and repulsion 
being u inversely as the square of the distance." This 
idea is subject to all the objections pointed out by Fara- 
day, and is incompatible with the fact that extreme cold- 
ness and great solidity usually accompany each other. 

Though Prof. Tyndall is wrong in denying the ex- 
istence of caloric, yet it is impossible to demonstrate 
the conservation and correlation of forces as thoroughly 
as he and other masters of modern science have done, 
without seeing that heat is the force underlying all 
others, and showing itself from under a thousand dis- 
guises. In one of the lectures of the great scientist 
just named, the omnipresent power of heat is depicted 
with a vigor and eloquence which, as I cannot equal, 
I will quote: 

"Grand, however, and marvelous as are those ques- 
tions regarding the physical constitution of the sun, 
they are but a portion of the wonders connected with 
our luminary. His relationship to life is yet to be re- 
ferred to. The earth's atmosphere contains carbonic acid, 
and the earth's surface bears living plants; the former 
is the nutriment of the latter. The plant apparently 
seizes the combined carbon and oxygen; tears them 



84 THE 0XE GREAT FORCE. 

asunder, storing the carbon and letting the oxygen go 
free. By no special force, different in quality from 
other forces, do plants exercise this power — the real 
magician here is the sun. We have seen in former 
lectures how heat is consumed in forcing; asunder the 
atoms and molecules of solids and liquids, convert- 
ing itself into potential energy, which reappeared as 
heat when the attraction of the separated atoms was 
again allowed to come into play. Precisely the same 
considerations which we then applied to heat we have 
now to apply to light, for it is at the expense of the 
solar light that the decomposition of the carbonic acid 
is effected. Without the sun the reduction cannot take 
place, and an amount of sunlight is consumed exactly 
equivalent to the molecular work accomplished. Thus 
trees are formed, thus the meadows grow, thus the 
flowers bloom. Let the solar rays fall upon a surface 
of sand, the sand is heated and finally radiates away 
as much as it receives; let the same rays fall upon a 
forest, the quantity of heat given back is less than that 
received, for the energy of a portion of the sunbeams 
is invested in the building of the trees. I have a bundle 
of cotton which I ignite ; it bursts into flame and yields 
a definite amount of heat; precisely that amount of 
heat was abstracted from the sun in order to form that 



REMARKS. ' 85 

bit of cotton. This is a representative case ; every tree, 
plant and flower grows and flourishes by the grace and 
bounty of the sun. 

"But we cannot stop at vegetable life, for this is the 
source, mediate or immediate, of all animal life. In 
the animal body vegetable substances are brought again 
into contact with their beloved oxygen, and they burn 
within us as a fire burns in a grate. This is the source 
of all animal power, and the forces in play are the same 
in kind as those which operate in inorganic nature. In 
the plant the clock is wound up, in the animal it runs 
down. In the plant the atoms are separated, in the 
animal they recombine. And, as surely as the force 
which moves a clock's hands is derived from the arm 
which winds up the clock, so surely is all terrestrial 
power drawn from the sun. 

"Leaving out of account the eruptions of volcanoes 
and the ebb and flow of the tides, every mechanical 
action on the earth's surface, organic and inorganic, vital 
and physical, is produced by the sun. His warmth 
keeps the sea liquid and the atmosphere a gas, and 
all the storms which agitate both are blown by the 
mechanical force of the sun. He lifts the rivers and 
the glaciers up to the mountains, and thus the cataract 
and the avalanche shoot with an energy derived imme- 



86 THE ONE GREAT FORCE. 

diately from him, Thunder and lightning are also his 
transmuted strength. Every fire that burns and every 
flame that glows dispenses light and heat which origi- 
nally belonged to the sun. In these days, unhappily, 
the news of battle is familiar to us, but every shock 
and every charge is an application or misapplication of 
the mechanical force of the sun. He blows the trumpet, 
he urges the projectile, he bursts the bomb. And 
remember this is not poetry, but rigid mechanical truth. 
He rears, as I have said, the whole vegetable world, and 
through it the animal ; the lilies of the field are his 
workmanship, the verdure of the meadows, and the 
cattle upon a thousand hills. He forms the muscle, he 
urges the blood, he builds the brain. His fleetness is 
in the lion's foot; he springs in the panther, he soars 
in the eagle, he slides in the snake. He builds the 
forest, and hews it down ; the power which raised the 
tree, and which wields the axe, being one and the same. 
The clover sprouts and blossoms, and the scythe of the 
mower swings by the operation of the same force. 

"The sun digs the ore from our mines, he rolls the 
iron, he rivets the plates, he boils the water, he draws 
the train. He not only grows the cotton, but he spins 
the fibre and weaves the web. There is not a hammer 
raised, a wheel turned, or a shuttle thrown, that is not 



REMARKS. 87 

raised and turned and thrown by the sun. His energy 
is poured freely into space, but our world is a halting 
place where this energy is conditioned. Here the Pro- 
teus works his spells; the self-same essence takes a mil- 
lion shapes and hues, and finally dissolves into its primi- 
tive and almost formless form. The sun comes to us as 
heat, he quits us as heat, and between his entrance and 
departure the multiform powers of our globe appear. 
They are all special forms of solar power; the molds 
into which his strength is temporarily poured in pass- 
ing from its source through infinitude." 

Striking out all reference to attraction, the foregoing 
is true, except that in place of the sun, w r hich is the 
mere organ of action, we should substitute the self- 
repellent element, caloric, or fire, eternally flashing 
through all space, leaving the sun only to fly across 
immeasurable fields until it strikes some planet or 
star; reflected, refracted, driven into the bowels of the 
earth, or Jupiter or Sirius, by the force, derived from 
its own self-repulsion, with which it strikes those 
bodies; driven out again by that same self-repulsion, 
eternally producing motion, and returning perhaps, after 
millions of years, to the sun, whose power it continu- 
ally supplies. In short, we must substitute for the sun, 
which is always millions of miles away, the caloric 



88 THE OXE GREAT FORCE. 

which is here iu our midst one minute, and in the 
next instant may be aiding some old lady of Saturn to 
thread her needle, or thawing a snow bank on the 
mountains of Uranus. 

Instead of overstating the effect of this wonderful 
force, the learned Professor does not make a large 
enough list of its manifestations. It does not merely 
lift up the water, leaving attraction to draw it down, 
but the same power which raises the fluid drives it 
back to earth, and drives the earth itself along its 
orbit. 

When a man pumps water out of a well into a 
trough, where the cold first freezes it and then the sun 
converts it into vapor, it seems as if the man contracts 
his muscles, thereby working the pump, which sucks 
the water up till it issues from the spout when the 
earth attracts it towards its center, and when it is frozen 
in the trough it seems as if it is held together by the 
attraction of cohesion, and that the sun destroys that 
cohesion by means of chemical affinity and attracts the 
vapor upwards. But, in fact, the man admits caloric 
into his muscles, where by its self-repulsion it expands 
them in width, thus drawing up the ends, lifting the 
bones, and working the pump. "When a vacuum is 
formed, the pressure of the air on the outside drives the 



REMARKS. 89 

water up till it runs from the spout, when the concen- 
trating rays of caloric drive it downward. Then the 
caloric escapes into the colder atmosphere, and the 
particles fit so closely that the caloric on the outside 
presses them in a solid mass. When a still greater 
amount of caloric is driven against this mass from the 
sun, it enters between the panicles, pushes them apart 
by its expansive power, and then by the same power is 
driven upward, carrying with it the small particles we 
call vapor. 



CHAPTER X. 



DEFINITIONS. 



Caloric — Is a subtle, eternal, self-repellent fluid, ex- 
tending through, all space. 

Attraction, (apparent.) — Is the result of screening a 
substance from pressure on one side, leaving it to be 
driven towards the screen by the pressure from the 
other side. 

Heat — Is caloric acting on the sense of feeling. 

Light — Is caloric acting on the sense of sight. 

Gravitation — Is the driving of bodies towards the 
center of the earth by the force of caloric exerting 
its self-repulsion throughout the universe. 

Capillary Attraction — Is the cutting off of the con- 
verging rays of caloric from above by a small tube, 
leaving the rays from below free to carry the liquid 
upward. 

Planetary Motion— -Is the effect produced on the 
planets by the concentrating streams of caloric from the 



DEFINITIONS. 91 

outside, acting on the rectilinear motion produced by 
explosion. 

Electricity — Is caloric confined in channels or bub- 
bles, or just escaping from them. 

Positive Electricity — Is caloric passing in currents out 
of a body. 

Negative Electricity — Is the same element passing in 
currents into a body. 

Magnetism — Is the condition of a body around which 
an electric current is passing. 

Polarity in Magnetism — Is the direction of the cur- 
rents. 

Transparency — Is such an arrangement of the parti- 
cles of a substance that the rays of caloric pass 
through in straight lines, without carrying any gross 
matter with them. 

Translucency — Is such an arrangement of the particles 
that caloric passes through pure, but not in straight 
channels. 

Opacity — Is such a condition of a substance that 
caloric in passing carries with it matter too coarse to 
act on the sense of sight. 

Cohesion — Is the pressing together of the particles of 
a substance by the self-repulsion of caloric from the 
outside. 



92 THE OXE GREAT FORCE. 

Hardness — Is the close fitting of the particles. 

Softness — Is the loose fitting of the particles. 

Adhesion — Is the pressing together of two separate 
substances by the outside caloric. 

Elasticity — Is the tendency of globules of caloric to 
assume a spherical shape, thus forcing the elastic sub- 
stance into the form best fitted for that purpose. 

Chemical Affinity — Is the breaking down of the cel- 
lular walls between different substances by the self- 
repulsion of caloric. 

Combustion — Is the escape of caloric from ignited 
bodies. 

Explosion — Is the sudden escape of a large amount 
of the same substance. 

The Tidal Wave — Is the pressing out of the elastic 
sea. at both ends of the line of least pressure. 

The Building Power of Animeds and Plants — Is the 
self-repulsion of caloric, driving the inert matter of 
which the tissues are formed into the place marked 
out by the organization of the seed or embryo. 

The Circulation of the Blood — Is the result of the 
caloric contained in it driving it through the veins. 

Blistering, (either by freezing or burning.) — Is the 
breaking down of the cellular tissues by caloric going 
rapidly into or out of the flesh. 



DEFINITIONS. 93 

Contraction of the Muscles in Length — Is the result of 
their lateral expansion by the caloric admitted into 
them. 

The One Great Force of the Material Universe is 
the Self-repulsion of Caloric, acting on the Inertia of 
Ordinary Matter. 



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